Rochester’s Catie Langdon legs out a bunt for a hit against the New Hampshire Black Widows during the ASA 14U state tournament Saturday at Roger Allen Park in Rochester. Rochester won, 5-3, in eight innings. (Whaley/Citizen photo)

ROCHESTER — Delaney McKenney was supposed to be on second base. What happened after that was almost all luck.

It was a tie game between the Rochester Slammers and the New Hampshire Black Widows in a Saturday’s winner’s bracket game at the ASA 14U state girls fast-pitch softball tournament at Roger Allen Park. Per international speed-up rules, McKenney started the top of the eighth inning at second base because she had been the last batter in the seventh inning.

McKenney ended up scoring the game-winning run as the Slammers pulled out a 5-3 win, thanks in part to three Black Widow errors.

With no outs and McKenney on second, Isabel Beaulieu tried to bunt her to third base. The bunt, however, was popped right up and back to Black Widows catcher Paige Delier, who caught the ball for the out. McKenney never slowed down running to third and was easy pickings at second for a double play. She turned to run back, but the throw from the catcher sailed into center field and McKenney was safe.

McKenney then stole third base. Olivia Noonan was safe on a dropped infield pop fly that left runners at the corners with one out.

Lead off hitter Mallory Perron hit a grounder right to the third baseman. McKenney broke for the plate, but the throw was wild high, so she was safe with the go-ahead run and the Slammers were up 4-3.

“I got nervous,” McKenney said. “The nerves really got to me. I heard everyone else yelling, ‘Back.’ But I ran and I was really happy that she overthrew because I would have been out. That wouldn’t have been good.”

Catie Langdon bunted home Noonan to make it 5-3.

“It was two evenly matched teams,” said Black Widows coach Chris Mazzeo. “You knew it was going to come down to mistakes. They’re a good team and you can’t give them extra outs and extra opportunities. That’s what we did.”

The Black Widows draw players from the Souhegan Valley/Monadnock region.

In the Widows’ half of the eighth, Sam Speer was the runner on second to start the frame. She never moved from there as the Slammers got the three outs in order on a flyout, popout and a 5-4 bunt.

“We played a little small ball, put some bunts down, did some steals, made them make some plays,” said Slammers coach Jody Provencher. “They didn’t do so well (defensively), so we pulled a win out.”

It was 3-3 after seven innings. The Black Widows tied the game in the bottom of the seventh with some two-out magic. Rachyl Parslow singled and scored on Jordyn Babin’s double to right center, that dropped between two Rochester fielders.

The Slammers took a 1-0 lead in the first when Perron singled, went to second on a walk and scored from there on Mackenzie Dias’s long sacrifice foul ball to left.

Parslow did a nice job hauling in the ball near the fence, but took too long getting the ball back in and Perron tagged from second and was safe in a close play at home.

The Widows scored twice in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles by Sam Dubois and Speer to go up 2-1.

Rochester tied it up in the fourth when Beaulieu led off with a single to right. She stole second, moved to third on Noonan’s groundout, and scored on Perron’s grounder to second.

Rochester moved ahead 3-2 in the sixth. Langdon walked, stole second and third, and scored when the throw to third was wild.

Perron had two hits, a run and an RBI to lead Rochester’s nine-hit attack. Madison Provencher also had two hits.

Babin (run, RBI) and Dubois (run, RBI) had two hits each for the Widows.

“I think we walked in from the long break tired,” said McKenney. Rochester won its first game at 8 that morning. “We thought it was going to be just an easy game. We got there and, oooh, this is close. We had to fight back harder. We did good.”

Alexa Gagne started for Rochester and went four innings. Deanna Scahill pitched the final four to pick up the win.

Madison Labrie went all eight innings for the Widows and took the loss.

Rochester (2-1) lost its third game of the day to the Diamond Gems Orange, 3-2. Scahill went the distance as the pitcher and took the loss. Ashley Tanguay had a hit and Mckenney laced a double.

The Slammers will play an elimination game today at 9:45 a.m. The tournament’s championship game is scheduled for 3 p.m.